Hi everyone, this is my first instructable. I hope you enjoy it!
In this instructable I will show you how to easily make an electronic metronome, at the heart of which is a 555 timer. I found the original plans for this and the circuit diagram here.
Here is a video of the metronome.
It has two LEDs and a speaker. For each beat, it clicks and switches the LED that is lit up. You control the speed of the beats with a dial.
In this instructable I will show you how to easily make an electronic metronome, at the heart of which is a 555 timer. I found the original plans for this and the circuit diagram here.
Here is a video of the metronome.
It has two LEDs and a speaker. For each beat, it clicks and switches the LED that is lit up. You control the speed of the beats with a dial.
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Signing UpStep 1: Parts and Tools
There are a few parts and tools you'll need you'll need. I found all of the parts at Radioshack, and I bet that all of the tools can be found there too. Links are to the parts and tools at RadioShack.com.
Parts:
9v battery snap-on connector
9v battery
2 (two) 22 uF capacitors
3 (three) 1K ohm resistors
Perforated PC board
555 timer
Wire
SPST Switch
2 (two) 3V LEDs
8 Ohm Speaker (see notes below)
250K Ohm Potentiometer (see notes below)
Knob
And finally... a project box.
Notes:
A project box can be just about anything that the parts will fit into, will sufficiently protect what you've built, and have some way of providing access to the controls. I used a see-through plastic box that held thumbtacks. It conveniently opens and closes for repairs and battery changes, makes it look cool, and you can easily drill holes for the controls to go through. You could buy a project box from Radioshack or find one in your house.
About the speaker: I found mine in a bad set of walky-talkies. To find out the resistance, just take a multimeter and measure the resistance across the leads or it should say on the package if you bought it. It needs to be 8 ohms!
About the potentiometer: If you click on the link, it won't take you to a 250K ohm potentiometer. That's because Radioshack doesn't have one. Instead, I found a stereo 100K pot at Radioshack and the two signal paths in sequence so it became a 200K pot (which is close enough). The diagram for this is in the next step.
Tools:
Drill (if you want/need to drill holes in your project box for the controls/leds/speaker)
Soldering iron
Glue/adhesive to hold stuff in place in the project box (I used a hot glue gun, it's easy to use and holds things well)
Breadboard (if you want to make a prototype, which you should)
Parts:
9v battery snap-on connector
9v battery
2 (two) 22 uF capacitors
3 (three) 1K ohm resistors
Perforated PC board
555 timer
Wire
SPST Switch
2 (two) 3V LEDs
8 Ohm Speaker (see notes below)
250K Ohm Potentiometer (see notes below)
Knob
And finally... a project box.
Notes:
A project box can be just about anything that the parts will fit into, will sufficiently protect what you've built, and have some way of providing access to the controls. I used a see-through plastic box that held thumbtacks. It conveniently opens and closes for repairs and battery changes, makes it look cool, and you can easily drill holes for the controls to go through. You could buy a project box from Radioshack or find one in your house.
About the speaker: I found mine in a bad set of walky-talkies. To find out the resistance, just take a multimeter and measure the resistance across the leads or it should say on the package if you bought it. It needs to be 8 ohms!
About the potentiometer: If you click on the link, it won't take you to a 250K ohm potentiometer. That's because Radioshack doesn't have one. Instead, I found a stereo 100K pot at Radioshack and the two signal paths in sequence so it became a 200K pot (which is close enough). The diagram for this is in the next step.
Tools:
Drill (if you want/need to drill holes in your project box for the controls/leds/speaker)
Soldering iron
Glue/adhesive to hold stuff in place in the project box (I used a hot glue gun, it's easy to use and holds things well)
Breadboard (if you want to make a prototype, which you should)
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Ey can the potentiometar have 3 ends not 6? i mean will it work?
however, by adding a a capacitor across the power leads of the relay it is possible to broadly control the speed at which the contacts switch.
there are also other ways... which are not as easy to describe but basically involve capacitors in parallel, and a relay that switches them from charging to actuating a second relay... yeah its not that easy to describe but i have seen it happen before and the potentiometer would control their interval of charging... in this scenario...
make life easier by simplifying the idea
now i have a lot more experience with electronics then when i first commented above so a 555 now is no problem at all and relays are inefficient, not exact, and consume lots more power than a single 555 IC. Just saying that relays can be wired to actuate a buzzer/led at regular intervals but so can the 555. also check out the annoy a tron ible as it performs a similar function...
Why not use this site to test the accuracy of your metronome.
http://www.play-bass.com/metronome.html
Small niggle, if you want people to follow your photo of the breadboard, then you need a much clearer shot of the breadboard, preferably in macro, from directly above, with the board filling the whole image.